As you might know, this is the original Lada, which opened car production for VAZ in 1969. The car itself is a Fiat 124 modified for the extreme conditions that can be found in the former Soviet Union. All subsequent Lada cars were based on the VAZ-2101, until the front wheel drive Samara was introduced. But even the original 2101 was kept in production until 1988.

"Жигули", or Zhiguli, is the name this earliest VAZ car had, and refers to a groups of hills close to Togliatti, were these cars were built. It was also nicknamed "Копейка", the Russian kopeck, the smallest coin and a hundreth of a ruble.